From Method Actors to Last-Minute Scramblers: Ranking the Actors Who Over-prepared or Underprepared for a Role

Kelsey Berish | December 8, 2023 2:43 pm

Which Hollywood actors put in the work and which ones completely phoned it in? Look no further! We've got the details of which actors went the extra mile with months of research and preparation and which ones stumbled onto the set with no idea what the movie was even about. Hold onto your popcorn, folks!

Continue clicking through to see more and leave a comment if you think we forgot any!

Overprepared - Natalie Portman, Black Swan

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Fox Searchlight Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox/MovieStillsDB
Fox Searchlight Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox/MovieStillsDB

Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan won her the Best Actress Oscar, and it was all due to the hard work she put into preparing for the role.

She trained herself tirelessly to become a ballerina, something that has clearly paid off.

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Underprepared - Kit Harington, Pompeii

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Sony Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
Sony Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
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Kit Harrington, who is known for his role as Jon Snow on the television series Game of Thrones, made his silver screen debut in Pompeii. Unfortunately, he was woefully unprepared for the film and did not do any research on the history of the city.

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After filming came to an end, Harrington finally went to visit Pompeii but he should have done this before production began.

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Overprepared - Jamie Foxx, Ray

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Universal Pictures/MovieStillsDB
Universal Pictures/MovieStillsDB
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Jamie Foxx won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ray in the film Ray.

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To prepare, Foxx learned all of his songs on the piano, which was challenging as he had to wear prosthetic eyelids for 14 hours a day. During an interview, Foxx said it gave him panic attacks.

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Underprepared - Christopher Plummer, All the Money In The World

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TriStar Pictures/MovieStillsDB
TriStar Pictures/MovieStillsDB
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Christopher Plummer is known for his natural acting ability, which was not the case for All the Money in the World.

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He replaced another actor in reshoots and had only a few days to prepare.

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Underprepared – Tom Hardy, Bronson

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Vertigo Films/MovieStillsDB
Vertigo Films/MovieStillsDB
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Tom Hardy was cast in the role of Charles Bronson in the film, Bronson.

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The real-life Bronson was not impressed with Hardy's physique and did not want him to portray him on the silver screen.

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Overprepared - Tom Cruise, Interview With The Vampire

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Warner Bros./MovieStillsDB
Warner Bros./MovieStillsDB
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Tom Cruise put in a lot of effort to prepare for his role as Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview with the Vampire, going above and beyond what was required.

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He read all of Anne Rice's books, dropped weight, lived a life of luxury in Paris, and even learned how to play the piano. In the end, Rice decided that Cruise did an excellent job and took back her earlier statement that he was not suitable for the role.

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Underprepared - James McAvoy, X-Men: First Class

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Twentieth Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
Twentieth Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
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James McAvoy played the young Professor X in X-Men: First Class. While he did a great job, he made a huge assumption that left him underprepared.

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McAvoy assumed he'd be bald like Patrick Stewart's portrayal, so he shaved his head. It turned out the studio actually wanted him to have hair.

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Overprepared - Richard Gere, Time Out Of Mind

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IFC Films
IFC Films
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In the film Time Out of Mind, actor Richard Gere played a homeless man living on the streets of New York City.

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To get prepared for the role, Gere spent time working with the Coalition for Homeless, talking and listening to homeless people and learning their stories about how it was living on the streets. Needless to say, his over-preparation paid off.

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Underprepared - Michael J. Fox, Back To The Future

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Universal Studios/MovieStillsDB
Universal Studios/MovieStillsDB
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Michael J. Fox wasn't originally going to play Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Before Fox came into the picture, Eric Stolz played Marty.

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Eventually, a recasting happened, and Fox came onto the set weeks into filming. Needless to say, he wasn't exactly prepared for the role, but it became a classic nonetheless.

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Overprepared – Charlize Theron, Monster

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Newmarket Films/MovieStillsDB
Newmarket Films/MovieStillsDB
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Charlize Theron won an Academy Award for her performance in Monster.

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To get ready for the real-life character of serial killer Aileen Wuornos, she gained 30 pounds! According to the actress, "I knew I had to transform my body to get myself into her physical skin — the way she moved in her body."

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Underprepared - Billy Burke, Twilight

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Summit Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
Summit Entertainment/MovieStillsDB
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Billy Burke was underprepared to take on the role of Bella Swan's father, Charlie, in Twilight.

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Apparently, Burke had no clue what Twilight was and never read the books. He took the role because director Catherine Hardwick requested to have him in the film.

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Overprepared - Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

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Neon/MovieStillsDB
Neon/MovieStillsDB
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Margot Robbie put a lot of hard work into portraying Tonya Harding in I, Tonya.

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Robbie spoke with the real figure skater herself and committed to hours of training to hone skills on the ice.

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Underprepared - Peter Weller, Robocop

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Twentieth Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox
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Granted, Peter Weller's under-preparedness in Robocop wasn't technically his fault, but he wasn't ready for the role all the same. To get ready for his role, Weller wanted to wear his robotic suit for a few weeks to get used to moving in it.

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Sadly, the suit wasn't ready until the last second, leaving Weller no time to learn how he'd move. Production actually stopped for a few days so he could get used to the suit.

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Overprepared - Christopher Lee, The Lord of the Rings

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New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
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Christopher Lee made it no secret that he was a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings. Not only did Lee reread the trilogy each year, but he took it upon himself to write a personal letter to Peter Jackson, asking for a part in the movie.

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Eventually, he was cast as the evil wizard Saruman.

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Underprepared - Hugh Jackman, X-Men

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Twentieth Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox
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When the first film in the X-Men franchise went underway, Dougray Scott was originally cast as Wolverine. A few weeks into filming, he was replaced by Hugh Jackman, a vastly underprepared actor who had never even read one of the comics!

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On top of that, Jackman was not in "Wolverine shape," something he says he might have "overpromised" the studio when he was offered the role.

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Overprepared - Brie Larson, Room

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A24
A24
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There was a reason Brie Larson won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Room -- she was prepared for the part! According to the actress, she stayed home for an entire month, wanting to know what it felt like in captivity.

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During that time, she kept a diary and made collages, something that her character does with her son, an actor who Larson made a point to hang out with prior to filming.

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Underprepared - Michael Gambon, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

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Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
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For Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, actor Michael Gambon took over the iconic role of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. As it turns out, the actor just strolled on set without so much as reading the book series.

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According to Gambon, there was no point in reading the books as he was "playing with [screenwriter] Steve Kloves' words" and not what was written in the novels.

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Overprepared - Dustin Hoffman, Marathon Man

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Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
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For his role as Thomas "Babe" Levy, actor Dustin Hoffman went a little overboard when it came to preparation. To accurately depict a sleep-deprived man, Hoffman took it upon himself to stay awake for 72 hours!

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When his co-star Laurence Olivie heard about the extreme method acting, he said to Hoffman, "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?"

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Underprepared - Marlon Brando, Apocalypse Now

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United Artists
United Artists
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Walking onto the set of Apocalypse Now, it was evident to pretty much everyone that Marlon Brando was very unprepared for his role.

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Not only did he show up about 100 pounds overweight, but he hadn't even read the script and had no clue about the character he was playing.

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Overprepared - Lady Gaga, House of Gucci

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MGM
MGM
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Lady Gaga went above and beyond to prepare for her character Patrizia Reggiani in House of Gucci.

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Not only did she speak in an Italian accent for a year and a half and start to look at everything with dollar signs in her eyes, but to fully understand her character's cunning personality, she watched YouTube videos revolving around foxes and panthers.

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Underprepared - Ewan McGregor, Emma

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Miramax Films
Miramax Films
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When it came to the film Emma, actor Ewan McGregor admitted during an interview that it wasn't his best work.

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He took the role of Frank Churchill because he wanted to do something completely different from Trainspotting. He didn't even read the Jane Austen novel the film is based on, research that many other actors would take upon themselves to do before production.

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Overprepared - Daniel Day-Lewis, My Left Foot

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Palace Pictures
Palace Pictures
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To get ready for his role as an Irish man born with cerebral palsy in My Left Foot, actor Daniel Day-Lewis did a whole lot of research and method acting. Day-Lewis would go to clinics and speak with disabled patients, and when on set, he wouldn't stand up from his prop wheelchair.

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There is a reason why he won the Academy Award for Best Actor!

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Underprepared - Sabrina Carpenter, Work It

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Netflix
Netflix
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While Sabrina Carpenter is no stranger to acting, the dance routines in the Netflix film Work It were a bit out of her wheelhouse.

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Even though her character was technically learning how to dance, Carpenter herself didn't take lessons before the beginning of filming, and it showed on the screen, especially next to her dance-ready co-stars.

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Overprepared - Jennifer Hudson, Respect

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MGM
MGM
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Singer Jennifer Hudson left no stone unturned when it came to preparing for her role as soul-singer Aretha Franklin in Respect. To really understand Franklin, Hudson met with the iconic singer on a weekly basis for a few years!

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On top of that, Hudson watched old clips of Franklin performing, hiring a vocal and movement expert to ensure she was accurately portraying the legend.

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Underprepared - Ewan McGregor, Beauty And The Beast

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Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
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Actor Ewan McGregor really dropped the ball on his preparation of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast. For those who remember the film, McGregor didn't do much in ways of training his voice to properly articulate a French Accent.

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More than once, his Scottish accent shined through, making every scene his character was in strange and uncomfortable.

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Overprepared - Robert Pattinson, Good Time

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A24
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Robert Pattinson went a bit overboard in his preparation for Good Time, but it paid off since the film received stellar reviews. To get ready to play a gritty bank robber, Pattinson decided to reside in a Harlem basement, the same one shown in the film.

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According to Pattinson, "I never opened my curtains, didn't change the sheets the entire time I was there, for those two months, and I would just sleep in my clothes."

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Underprepared - Paul Bettany, Iron Man

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Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
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While Jarvis, later known as Vision, is a fan-favorite character in the MCU, fans might be shocked to learn that actor Paul Bettany was wildly underprepared to take on the role of Tony Stark's AI sidekick.

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Bettany never read any Marvel comic books to research his character. He pretty much showed up in a recording booth and read his lines without any background context.

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Overprepared - Demi Moore, G.I. Jane

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Buena Vista Pictures
Buena Vista Pictures
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Demi Moore went all-out when it came to her title role in G.I. Jane. To prepare for the stunt-heavy part, Moore took it upon herself to train with a former Navy SEAL, enduring the hard training exercises to get physically and mentally prepared.

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During an interview, Moore said, "I could have come in and asked to let the stuntwoman do the obstacle course. But I felt I would have walked away having missed an opportunity experiencing, first-hand, what these people actually go through in training."

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Underprepared - Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
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It is hard to imagine another actor playing Aragorn in The Lord of The Rings, but Viggo Mortensen came on to the set replacing another actor. According to the actor, he felt vastly unprepared for the role, as the rest of the cast had been preparing for months.

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During an interview, he said, "I felt unprepared. The other actors had been there for weeks and months, in some cases preparing for the arduous task of shooting the whole trilogy. I also felt awkward because I'd never been in a position of replacing another actor."

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Overprepared – Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

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Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MovieStillsDB
Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MovieStillsDB
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To get ready for her role as Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara completely changed her appearance and took up a few new hobbies.

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She got multiple facial piercings, chopped her hair off, and bleached her eyebrows. She also took up martial arts, motorbike riding, and skateboarding.